The international community, from multilateral organisations to far-flung states, including Pakistan, has rightly come together to condemn Israel’s reported move to recognise Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland. Such a step would constitute a clear violation of Somalia’s internationally recognised territorial integrity. It is also widely understood that this move has far more to do with strategic calculation than with any professed altruism on Israel’s part.

As Pakistan’s representative at the United Nations Security Council has pointed out, Israel has repeatedly floated the idea of Somaliland as a potential destination for Palestinians forcibly displaced from Gaza and the West Bank. While earlier attempts to pressure........

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